Gray Matter

[toblix]

~~~ADVENTURE GAMES~~~

This is Jane Jensen's latest game, coming out soon. I just read the preview of it over on Adventure Gamers, and it sounds like it might not be horrible. I don't know... I'm suspecting it's just another cheap German adventure, like that turd Mata Hari, but maybe I'll give it a go.

Sometimes I wish that, instead of there being so many terrible adventure games, all the developers would realise their ideas, art and design are terrible, and give all their money to Revolution, along, maybe, with a time machine.

edit: Oh, look, there's a trailer:

cpn2DHwy8UU

Looks like someone got a hold of the 3dsmax walking cycle...! This is going to be awesome. Notice how they resisted including actual boring video clips from their adventure game, almost all the way through! Making a point and click adventure game trailer must be a horrible assignment, as must be making up all the questions that they display between each concept art shot. WHICH LIMITS WOULD YOU CONQUER?

[brkl]

All of them. All of the limits.

I love Jane Jensen, but she's been gone for a long time and these days you can't just rip hair off a cat and make a moustache. Who knows. Could be the greatest thing since Telltale, or not at all.

[Tanukitsune]

If it weren't for the walk cycle I would have thought this was a trailer for one of those "Interactive Hidden Object Games"... one of the better ones, that is...

[lobotomy42]

I still have hope!

[thorn]

Is Jane Jenson a big enough name with a fanbase to justify "A JANE JENSON ADVENTURE GAME"?

Also, the plural of 'Phenomenon' is 'Phenomena'. That mistake on its own has deemed this game unworthy of my attention.

[Kolzig]

I had this game on my wanted list a long time ago. The game has changed developers so many times and dropped of any radars that I have almost no faith in it, even though for old times sake I would really like to see a new game written by Jane Jensen.

Is it actually for real coming fall 2010 this time?

Edited November 11, 2010 by Kolzig

[Tanukitsune]

I thought it was coming out in Feb 2011?

[Kolzig]

Apparently you can already buy the soundtrack of the game?

Amazon

Also the official webpages are still saying that it's coming out "later this year".

Hmm, I happened to pop in at Adventuregamers after a very long hiatus from there, apparently Gray Matter has been released in Europe this week in Germany at least, with german and english audio tracks. So I guess pigs can truly fly.

Gray Matter finally released and Duke coming out next year, weird times...

There is no digital download however, and US release is apparently pushed to february.

This is the limited edition/collector's edition of the game:

http://astore.amazon.de/wwwdtpagcom-21/detail/B003ZHIDL8

Edited November 12, 2010 by Kolzig

[syntheticgerbil]

Hmm... I'll probably get this just because it's Jane Jensen. I was more excited at some point maybe 5 years ago, but I don't care any more and feel like the game will probably be cheap, since it seems to be a common thing now for some adventure developers of yore to farm out their game idea to some eager German adventure game fans only to end up kind of a mess. Seems like a dumb way to design games.

The main character seems like someone was trying too hard to make his dream girl and didn't really create someone appropriate for the game setting.

I guess I'll bite when there's a non-German boxed copy of this game, assuming that ever happens (since people seem to be indicating the whole box and instructions are in German). If not, I'll hope for a XBLA or PSN release for the US.

[Thyroid]

I haven't played this game yet, because I'm saving it for a day where I yearn for a long adventure game, but here's a few stupid things:

- I don't hate the game's cover art. This is a rarity. Although cover art's been sucking less lately (Borderlands had a decent one), it hasn't really gone places yet. This is a well-designed and expertly-painted cover.

- The same art style that graces the cover is also the one that is in cutscenes. They're done in the graphic novel-style that PSP MGS games were presented in. You can see it a bit here (skip to around 00:39).

- I think it's using an interface roughly-similar to old Sierra games.

- I can't think of any other stupid things. I ought to get this and The Whispered World when my adventure-game craving decides to move back into my stomach again.

[Kolzig]

- I don't hate the game's cover art. This is a rarity. Although cover art's been sucking less lately (Borderlands had a decent one), it hasn't really gone places yet. This is a well-designed and expertly-painted cover.

I just wish the age ratings were not that big in the cover, they kind of ruin the bottom area of the cover...

[Kolzig]

There's a demo available now for those who want to try it out.

http://www.worthdownloading.com/download.php?gid=2903&id=22585

[Orv]

Also, the plural of 'Phenomenon' is 'Phenomena'. That mistake on its own has deemed this game unworthy of my attention.

Doot-do-do-do-du

Also. World of Darkness, the Adventure Game?! Count me out.

[juv3nal]

There's a demo available now for those who want to try it out.

http://www.worthdownloading.com/download.php?gid=2903&id=22585

So I went ahead and gave that demo a shot.

In many ways it's very rough in the polish department. The background art is lovely though, the puzzles they show in the demo are fairly logical (although they do that annoying thing where you can't interact with certain things until you've found out why those things are significant) and the plot is sufficiently spooky and atmospheric.

But yeah very rough in some ways.

The "video" sequences especially. And there's a computer in-game which has this UI...which is, well, I could whip up something nicer looking in half an hour. I'm no great photoshop dude, but that is not any kind of exaggeration, that is literally true. It looks like they made a developer's kid do it in ms paint.

Also the journal is rubbish at telling you what you should be trying to do. Although I managed to muddle my way through.

I can see myself picking it up, but I'm kind of the ideal audience for this kind of thing because I play all sorts of not-very-good-at-all adventure games. I don't know if I could give my recommendation for a general audience.

[twmac]

They released a demo on Xbox LIVE, a whopping 1.3 Gb install. Tried it out and liked the radial controls, there were a few continuity errors whereby some of what the characters were saying seemed to be contrary to what was happening, but nothing major. The female character is all late 90's alternative but at least she isn't a moping old misery-guts like the male character.

The painted art in the settings are great but in the cut-scenes, not so much.

i don't know if it will be released in North America but it is getting an English language European release. Hmmm.

[Tanukitsune]

I quit a few moments after the tutorial... But I still think I'll get it... eventually...

[lobotomy42]

My actual real copy arrived in the mail yesterday. I played for the half-hour or so. Here are my (very, very initial) impressions.

Cons:

- Really not liking the voice actor for Sam. Almost every single line just seems to hit the wrong intonation, either over-enthusiastic or just completely off the mark. It's not bad voice acting, per se, just seems wrong for the character.

- The interface seems a little janky. Sometimes pressing the space bar does nothing, and other times the labels on the hotspots appear for no reason. Also the way inventory is managed is non-standard for adventure games, for no clear reason.

- That little lip-synced avatar of the speaker which just STARES STRAIGHT AHEAD is distracting and doesn't really add much.

Pros:

- People have mentioned the production values as a point of contention, but this hasn't really bugged me, at least during this initial segment. The game plays like a big-budget adventure game from 1999. The animations are either spot-on or completely non-existent. The backgrounds are detailed and lush, albeit completely static. I really don't have any issue with the cutscenes -- they look like early Flash animations done in high-res, or those re-mastered animations of Doctor Who episodes done for Patrick Troughton's "The Invasion" series.* Honestly, they're no worse than the awkward FMV in Gabriel Knight 2.

- The huge variety of hotspots and detailed backgrounds makes this feel extremely reminiscent of the old Sierra adventures I love so much. (This is an aspect of classic adventure games that Telltale has completely neglected, in my opinion.) It is so fun to click on every little thing in a room and here your character describe what she sees in it. Especially when Sam makes some snarky or dismissive remark about something that is sign-posted to the player as an important fore-shadowy symbol - this disparity in perception helps sell the world and the characters.

- The music and dialogue remind me very much of Gabriel Knight, which is a good thing.

In conclusion, I am enjoying the game so far, despite some niggling issues.

*Sorry for this completely random non-game-related reference.

[lobotomy42]

Here's my follow-up post, having now completed this.

One of my pros (lots of detailed hotspots) turned out to be not true after the first segment of the game, which was a minor letdown. As a result, puzzles were fairly simple throughout the game, since the presence of a hotspot on an item essentially guaranteed it would be used somehow, so the only question became "what do I use this for."

On the other hand, the voice acting grew on me over time. In general, I was pleased with the plot and story. It was involving, and the ending made sense, although the reasons behind don't get alluded to until the end of the game. Structurally, it was a bit like a simplified Gabriel Knight 3, with a bunch of mysterious goings-on and a wide cast of characters, each of whom *might* have done it, but probably didn't.

The game did end up feeling a little short. My impression is that significant portions were cut for time or budgetary reasons. A lot of events were told through the comic-book cut scenes that didn't necessarily need to be. Unlike others, I was mostly okay with the production values except for when it was obvious that things were missing or cut. In particular, it seemed like the relationships moved a little fast - Sam goes from disliking to feeling protective of Dr. Styles a bit too quickly, and similarly the "Lamb's Club" became a real club seemingly overnight. But these are minor quibbles.

So, not earth-shattering or revolutionary, but solid.

[toblix]

I want to play this, but I'm not buying a box from some country. There must be a downloadable copy somewhere...

[toblix]

Now how hard was that? I found it available for download here, for EUR 39,95€ euros. It has German and Englishsprache(n), and apparently you get the maximum amount of Geschwindigkeit they are able to provide. I'm a bit wary of these unknown downloadable sites, though. How do I know they don't use some sort of horrible DRM stuff? Maybe it's in their FÄQ, I'll go check.

Wir verwenden je nach Spiel und in Abhängigkeit von Publisher-Vorgaben folgende DRM-Systeme:

- ProActive StarForce

- Securom

- T@ges

- ActiveMark

- Solidshield

- Unilock

- STEAM-Aktivierung

- UBISOFT-Online-Kopierschutz

Oh shiiiiiiit

[Tanukitsune]

You can also buy if at the Adventure Shop, but... I assume it has the same security measures?

Damn, after reading that list of security measures I think I'll pick up the 360 version!

Does anybody understand German that can confirm that it has that much DRM?

[subbes]

That's the list of all DRM in the games they sell, not the DRM in each. So one game may have zero or more DRMs from the list.

[Tanukitsune]

So, they aren't going to tell you if the game has DRM? That kinda sucks...

[vimes]

Four clicks into the faq of the website...

Activation

Activation of the Game

You need to enter your personal serial number to activate and play your game. To do this you must be connected to the Internet.

You will only need to do this:

The First time that you play your game on your computer.

Each time that you change specific hardware components of your computer. Top

[Tanukitsune]

I was talking about the German site, I've used The Adventure Shop before, but that just what you have to activate it through Metaboli, it doesn't mention DRM either.